The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communication. In particular, the present invention relates to an antenna for use within such wireless communication.
As handsets and other wireless communication devices become smaller and embedded with more applications, new antenna designs are required to address inherent limitations of these devices. With classical antenna structures, a certain physical volume is required to produce a resonant antenna structure at a particular radio frequency and with a particular bandwidth. In multi-band applications, more than one such resonant antenna structure may be required. With the advent of a new generation of wireless devices, such classical antenna structure will need to take into account beam switching, beam steering, space or polarization antenna diversity, impedance matching, frequency switching, mode switching, etc., in order to reduce the size of devices and improve their performance.
Wireless devices are also experiencing a convergence with other mobile electronic devices. Due to increases in data transfer rates and processor and memory resources, it has become possible to offer a myriad of products and services on wireless devices that have typically been reserved for more traditional electronic devices. For example, modern day mobile communications devices can be equipped to receive broadcast television signals. These signals tend to be broadcast at very low frequencies (e.g., 200-700 Mhz) compared to more traditional cellular communication frequencies of, for example, 800/900 Mhz and 1800/1900 Mhz.